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The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films SeriesThe Devil and Daniel Johnston
A Film by Jeff Feuerzeig
MOMA (Museum of Modern Art)
11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019
Wednesday, March 30th at 6pm
Friday, April 1st at 8:45pm

Daniel Johnston, manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist is revealed
in this portrait of madness, creativity and love.

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The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a stunning portrait of a musical genius who
nearly slipped away. Director Jeff Feuerzeig exquisitely depicts a perfect example
of brilliance and madness going hand in hand. Because he is an artist suffering
from manic depression with delusions of grandeur, Daniel Johnston's life is
marked by wild fluctuations, numerous downward spirals, and periodic respites.

As a reclusive teenager, Johnston began showing signs of unusual artistic ability.
He created intuitive Super- 8 films and expressive comic book-style drawings
in the basement of his family's home. In the eyes of his fundamentalist Christian
family, however, he simply wasn't contributing to society in a useful or productive
way. After running off and joining a carnival, Johnston landed in Austin, Texas,
broke and alone. It was there he began to hone his musical career, managing
to secure a brief spotlight on MTV with the help of a timely break. Just as
he was beginning to make a local name for himself, however, Johnston's inner
demons began to surface.

The film artfully melds current footage, vintage performances, home movies,
and dozens of recorded audiotapes from Johnston's life. Testimony from supportive
friends and a deeply committed family adds a rich layer to Johnston's personal
history, but Daniel Johnston's poetic songs tell their own passionate, haunting,
and truly unforgettable story.
by Lisa Viola

When you come to Sundance, it’s with the hope of seeing a film like “The
Devil and Daniel Johnston,” a near-brilliant portrait of a tortured, artistic
genius. Unknown by too many, beloved by too few, Daniel Johnston is a true American
original: an unparalleled singer-songwriter, artist, former McDonalds employee,
delusional manic-depressive, unlikely legend in his own time. There will be
those who approach this film with great anticipation, obsessive fans of Johnston’s
who’ve waited for this moment forever. Then there will be those like me,
who unfortunately had very little exposure to Johnston’s music and art
prior to now. But I guess that’s the very reason why this doc feels so
out of leftfield, immediate, and an extraordinary work of art in its own right.

For those that don’t know, Daniel Johnston is best known as a brilliant
singer-songwriter who has the lyricism of Dylan, but the musical chops, or lack
thereof, of Wesley “King of Rock ’n Roll” Willis. “The
Devil and Daniel Johnston” is an illuminating chronicle of Johnston’s
origins, rise to fame, disastrous breakdowns, paranoid delusions, painful redemption,
and eventual elevation to living legend status. Since Johnston was such a prolific
and obsessive artist by nature, he recorded on tape or film nearly every major
moment in his life, artistic or otherwise. Thus, the film flaunts an almost
unprecedented array of “found” footage that, when collected, remarkably
captures the elusive essence of the man. The early footage of Johnston’s
tumultuous creative odyssey is particularly illuminating, as the teenage Daniel
provokes the anger and frustration of his loving parents who just didn’t
get him. Firmly rooted in their Christian fundamentalist ideals, Mabel and Bill
Johnston deeply cared for their son, but feared his turning to the “dark”
side and becoming an “unprofitable servant of the Lord”, as they
put it. As much as they tried to set him on the “right” path, enrolling
him at a Christian college in Abilene, Johnston’s voracious creativity
could not be suppressed and soon bizarre illustrations of eyeballs and Casper
the Friendly Ghost and Captain America began flowing from him at a somewhat
alarming rate.

Johnston eventually left Abilene and enrolled at an art college, Kent State,
which was a much better fit for his unique sensibilities. At Kent, Johnston
would meet the girl of his dreams and life-long muse in Laurie Allen. As Johnston
tells it, she would inspire a thousand songs in him. But as it were, a lifetime
with Laurie was not in the cards and it was around this time that Johnston would
begin his long and devastating downward spiral. The rest of his tale is so unbelievable,
so ridiculous, that to recount it all here would only be a foolhardy effort.
To briefly summarize, Johnston’s absurd odyssey would find him running
away with a carnival, scamming his way onto MTV, recording a masterpiece in
“Hi, How Are You?”, losing his mind on LSD, attacking his manager
with a lead pipe, getting committed to various mental institutions, adopting
a fanatically Christian ideal, “assaulting” an elderly woman, working
with Sonic Youth, crashing an airplane, starting a record company bidding war,
firing his long-time manager Jeff Tartakov, and obsessing over Mountain Dew
from a jail cell. And these are just some of the highlights (lowlights?) of
an artist some people compare to Dylan or Brian Wilson.

Having been a Johnston novice, I must admit to being thoroughly unprepared for
the sheer enormity of the man’s talents. While filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig
does an exceptional job of establishing Johnston as an almost preternaturally
gifted figure with generous helpings of his music and art, his real accomplishment
with “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” is in illuminating the deeply
troubled man behind all the hipster fuss. The film is virtually overflowing
with truly memorable scenes of great humor, pain, and inspiration. Especially
heartfelt are the scenes of an older, somewhat stabilized Johnston living at
home with his parents. Seeing the three of them onscreen together, after knowing
the hardships they faced and continue to face, is enough to induce shivers.
At 109 minutes, “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” feels slightly overlong,
perhaps the price to pay for Feuerzeig’s obvious admiration for the guy.
Feuerzeig clearly wants to place Johnston in the pantheon of the great Crazy
Artists of history, from Virgin Woolf to Dali. With this film, I believe that
the strange and wonderful legend of Daniel Johnston will only continue to grow.

2:49a - Thank God that there
have been some really good movies in the last couple of days. But the devil
is a lot more fun.
If there is a masterpiece at Sundance this year, it's Jeff Feuerzeig's The Devil
and Daniel Johnston.
It's amazing how many people wrote off this doc because of the catalog description.
I guess that it is the price of maing a film about a guy that few Sundancers
have ever heard of and describing him as a "musical genius." Put up
or shut up. I was one of those who didn't know about Daniel Johnston's genius
career. But after an hour or so of this film, I was not only aware, I was a
believer.

But not only is the story of this dangerously manic depressive artist fascinating,
the execution of the storytelling by Mr. Feuerzeig is elegant and complex, incredibly
showy without ever seeming to try to be more interesting than the film's subject.
Feuerzeig has only made one other film, a dozen years ago, about the band Half-Japanese…
one member of which, by no coincidence, had collaborated with Daniel Johnston.
But the skill Feuerzeig shows here is just amazing, bringing the barren melancholia,
as well as the humor of Johnston's work to us in a way that makes the emotional
experience unavoidable.

Feuerzeig's film is the latest quality example of the new genre of Self-Verite
Documentaries. This group includes films like Andrew Jarecki's Capturing The
Friedmans, John Dullaghan's Bukowski: Born Into This, Billy Corben's Raw Deal:
A Question of Consent, and last year's Sundance surprise from Jonathan Couette,
Tarnation. None of these films could have been made without a lot of footage
taken on Super 8 or video by the subjects of the docs… none of whom actually
directed their own stories.

Of course, the quality of the director's vision and skill are every bit as important
as the raw footage. About half way through this film, I started thinking about
how many horrible films we are about to see being submitted to (and sometimes
accepted by) film festivals that are based on the home videos that have become
ubiquitous in the era of relatively cheap video cameras.

So why is The Devil and Daniel Johnston so amazing? Well, it is the symbiotic
use of Johnston's art work and his music, filling the eyes and ears so intensely
that it fills the heart. This is the tale of a man who is deeply loved by the
people in his life… and who have to put up with a great deal of trouble
created by his illness. The music is fascinating, seemingly incompetent at first,
but more and more beautiful as you get a chance to really listen to the lyrics.
Feuerzeig uses lots and lots of taped dialogue over which he fearlessly loads
visual imagery, never stuck to the traditional style of dealing with taped info.
He even risks a harsh "click" at the end of some tapes that serves
as a great filmic period to those tapes.

And of course, there is the subject. My first reaction to the film is that Fox
Searchlight is the perfect studio to release this film, since for all intents
and purposes, this is a real-life version of Napoleon Dynamite and the cult
audience, which Searchlight built for Napoleon as effectively as any movie studio
ever has, is ripe for the embrace of this movie. Not only is this a great doc,
but it is fully capable of becoming one of the great college cult films of all
time. Daniel Johnston is, after all, a kid from a small town who never gave
up on his dreams and overcame not only his parents' disapproval, but the revolt
of his own body and mind. Not only do you come to really respect his work in
this film, you find a form of love for this damaged soul.

Not only was I thrilled to get the double CD of his work from the press office
after seeing the film, but I can't wait to see him play live here in Park City
later this week.

But I still don't feel like I've really expressed what is so very special about
this film. And I'm not sure that I can…. maybe after I've seen it a few
more times. Every time you think that it isn't going to get you, it grabs you
tighter. This is a guy who couldn't handle cleaning tables at McDonald's but
still managed to push his way onto MTV. This is a guy who obsesses on Casper
The Friendly Ghost and Captain America, but raises their artistry to new levels
in a way we are used to seeing from Warhol or Basquiat. This is a guy who is
considered a genius, but who has lived with his parents for most of his life.

Welcome to the NyQuil VIP Room
To catch everything at Sundance, you need a corporate sponsor, a bulletproof
immune system and the ability to bend the laws of time and space.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Heather Havrilesky
Jan. 28, 2005 | PARK CITY, Utah -- .............
Luckily, the premiere party for "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" is
just across the street in the Volkswagen Main Street Lounge, which is sort of
like an art gallery filled with massive Volkswagen logos, the back end of a
VW wagon, and a rug that looks like a collage of floor mats. The crowd gathered
to celebrate Jeff Feuerzeig's entertaining documentary about songwriter Johnston
is in good spirits, not surprising since the film is considered this year's
"Super Size Me."

Speaking of fast food, there are McDonald's fries and hamburgers on platters
at the party, in honor of Johnston's longtime job as a cashier at McDonald's.
(Incredibly enough, when Johnston gained recognition, editors from Spin and
other magazines would call him at McDonald's, since he didn't have a phone at
home.)

At the party, Feuerzeig tells me he'd wanted to make a film about Johnston for
years, but he'd been waiting for a third act in Johnston's life, as the musician
disappeared from the public eye, spending time in and out of institutions due
to his escalating battle with manic depression.
It proved to be well worth the wait, and Feuerzeig proved he had the patience
to sort through piles of confessional audiotapes, home movies, artwork and hundreds
of odd but impossibly catchy songs. Over the course of four years, Feuerzeig
cobbled all of these artifacts together, along with some very moving interviews
with friends and family, and the result is an imaginative and at times heartbreaking
tribute to Johnston's life and work. Not only is Feuerzeig's film as inventive
and outrageous as Johnston himself, but the filmmaker somehow manages to capture
the strange quirks and charms of Johnston's cohorts and collaborators on film
as well, choosing delectably odd first-person accounts over the more typical,
tedious VH1-style testimonies of rock stars.

Johnston was performing later that night, but there was a long line outside,
it was starting to rain and I was faint with hunger, so I escaped to Bandits
down the street with some friends, ...........................
By the time we emerged from a disappointing meal, Johnston had already gone
offstage after a short set, which just goes to show you that at Sundance, no
matter how much you plan, you're always going to miss something. But chances
are, festival-goers who've been stalking the latest indie hits with their credit
cards won't miss "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" when they pass out
the awards on Saturday night.

Sundance: Day Five
Time Out uncovers a gem and catches up with Jamie Bell and Tilda Swinton.
January 27 2005
Day five: Cult musician Daniel Johnston hits the big screen; and Time Out meets
Jamie Bell, Thomas Vinterberg, Tilda Swinton and Mike Mills.
Sometimes, one event can make the entire trip to a far-flung film festival worthwhile.
Monday night's screening at Sundance of Jeff Feuerzeig's music documentary 'The
Devil and Daniel Johnston' achieved exactly that.

Daniel Johnston is a 43-year-old outsider singer-songwriter and manic depressive
who has built a cult following since his early days in the mid-1980s performing
in Austin, Texas while simultaneously holding down a day job at McDonald's.
Feuerzeig's compassionate film draws on Johnston's obsessive audio-taping of
his life and work to tell us his extraordinary story, with interviews from his
family and many who have known and worked with him over the past three decades.
The result is superb: a complex and balanced portrait that celebrates and reveals
a character who has remained an enigma for years.
Johnston and his family, including his elderly parents, attended the film's
premiere, watching Feuerzeig's documentary for the first time. They were clearly
moved by the experience, remaining motionless in their seats as the rest of
the audience filtered out.
........................
Dave Calhoun

........ The struggle with
mental illness and its relationship to creative genius fuels Jeff Feuerzeig’s
“The Devil and Daniel Johnston,” a mind-blowing journey through
the life of the sweet-voiced singer-songwriter, which has so many serendipitous
triumphs and tragedies (both professional and personal) that the truth plays
like psychedelic folklore. ...........

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Film Lovers Are Sick People

http://socialretard.typepad.com/film_lovers_are_sick_peop/

The Devil and Daniel Johnston
There were so many indie hipsters at today's screening of The Devil and Daniel
Johnston, that I almost felt nauseous enough to sell my ticket and go home.
As it turns out, that would've been a big mistake. The film was fantastic.
You see, at these film festival things, you have to pick up your ticket at will
call and then wait in a line that stretches halfway down the block. Once the
audience for the preceding film comes out and the theatre is tidied up, they
let you in. If you want a decent seat (for me that's about 5-7 rows from the
front and dead center), you have to show up at least 45 minutes before the film
begins. Thirty minutes of that time is spent in line waiting and watching. During
this time, I became (perhaps unduly) irritated by the procession of pretentiously
stylized hipsters around me. There were a lot of potential fill-ins for members
of Interpol and the Strokes there. For a good five minutes, I really did consider
selling my ticket to one of the morose-looking folks in the "wish line"
who had little or no chance of getting in. Luckily, I had my tunes and that
saved me. I dialed up some Swedish death metal, ignored my surroundings and
waited.

My knowledge of Daniel Johnston is pretty limited. I remember hearing "Speeding
Motorcycle" and finding out it was a cover of a song he wrote. His original
version is now in a Target commercial. Over the years, I've seen his name mentioned
in interviews with bands. Every time someone mentioned him it was along the
lines of "this guy is a whacked out genius songwriter." After watching
the film, whacked out genius songwriter guy doesn't really cover it. Johnston
can barely play the guitar and his singing voice is horrible. But he's undeniably
a gifted songwriter and I can see how his performances can be captivating in
a raw, visceral way. I probably wouldn't want to sit and listen to his music
for a long period of time, but there's definitely something about the guy that's
compelling. He's also a pretty prolific artist who draws constantly.
However, Johnston's artistic talent isn't what makes him such a fascinating
subject for a documentary. He's also a manic depressive, which is shown in the
film in great detail. Director Jeff Feuerzeig had a lot of great material to
work with, including interviews with family and friends, home video footage
and audio letters Johnston sent to friends. These elements are combined to create
a richly detailed portrait of Johnston's life. As you see Johnston's rise to
mythical underground musician status (thanks mostly to Kurt Cobain wearing his
t-shirt in every photo he was in for several months), you also see the tragic
story of what is, at times, almost complete mental disintegration. It's a truly
compelling and fascinating story even if you have absolutely no interest in
or knowledge of Johnston's music and artwork.
Feuerzeig won the Directing award at Sundance and the film has since been bought
and will see a theatrical release sometime this year. Don't miss it. Posted
on February 13, 2005 at 08:16 PM | Permalink

CommentsI liked The Devil and DJ as a film and wonder what will happen to DJ
next. He has severe mental problems and wonder how he will fully get along when
they pass. I also felt bad for the Broadway Danny Rose manager, he really believed
in DJ and DJ blew it for him. But that happens throughout the film, just when
DJ might break and do something big he shoots himself (figuratively) in the
stomach and is left to wallow in pain and reconstruction for awhile.

I was really glad that the editor of the film was there for the screening because
in lots of ways he made the film. That movie is nothing but two thousand hours
of DJ video and audio clips, and it was up to the editor to make sense of it
all. I really don't know how important the director was to the film when compared
to the huge task of editor must have been.

As a movie, the Devil and DJ reminded me a lot of that guy who draws and writes
that epic 10k + paged book, except DJ gets noticed before he is dead. But Into
the Realms of the Unreal had no central character that we got to know, this
movie we got lots of insight into his everyday life. In the end I would say
DJ's life story is probably more interesting in a human life drama, than as
the story of a great artist because I don't think he was a great artist but
I certainly think he was a great story.